The devastation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The plane crash at Medan.
At a time when chaos, both by nature or the result of poor human judgement, wreaked havocs around the globe, it seems strange and irrelevant that I should be "celebrating life", blogging on my love for food, my fear of having to give presentation, and complaining about poor service standards by the retails industry. Surely, there is more to life then these.
In the US, New Orleans has descended into anarchy - looting running rampant; people dying, women and children being raped and killed. All under the eyes of the "law-enforcers". It's surreal that these are happening in the soil of the USA, the supreme power of the World, the very power that "could do no wrong", despite the "unjustified" war against Iraq. It's ironic how the table has turned. And not by men, but by the act of God.
Indonesia seems to be at the receiving end of much of the wrath of nature. It got the brunt of destruction during the Tsunami. Aceh was almost decimated to the ground. And now the plane crash.
Allow me to be philosophical for just once. After all, what happens to mankind does affect us one way or another. We are all part of this awesome universe by the Creator and we are all part of humanity, whether we like it or not.
Sometimes, life is so much pain and suffering .... I find little solace in this quote by Helen Keller: "The world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it".
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4 comments:
Ha, this time I am first. Wah you wax philosophical ah. Then don't stand around and do nothing lah. Sometimes it doesn't help if you 'think too much on you feet'. You must act with your hands too. Why don't you donate some money to the US to help Katrina victims just like you did for the tsunami victims. Do you think that a rich developed country like the US does not need any help since it is more often giving aid to other countries rather than receiving it?
It's not that I don't want to help the less fortunate. Since we're on topic of philosophy, then let it be known that my philosophy has always been "charity begins at home".
I hardly donate to charity even way before the NKF saga. That's because I've always considered myself poor man who is in need of a promotion for better pay, unlike people who claimed they have no more need for promotion. Hehehe..
The only donation I give and still giving is the $2 that the gahmen deduct from my monthyly salary for the CDC. It started since the day I joined the company. I wasn't even asked. Nor given an option to opt out. And though it's really a matter of principal, the thought of having to go through the red-tape to terminate the $2 donation is quite off-putting. $20 maybe; but not $2.
That's the problem. No one, not even the CDC, will know how many on its register are 'unwilling donors'like yourself who are in only because of the inconvenience of opting out. What so difficult about opting out? Don't expect CDC to hand you an opt-out form on a silver platter. Ask and you will be given. That's what a few of my colleagues and I did when the scheme was first implemented or rather, to put it more crudely and correctly, shaft down our throats. Like you, I was more unhappy with the principle of the opt-out system rather than the good motive of charity behind it.
It is people like you who make the gahmen boasts proudly that Singapore is different because 'it can ban chewing gum and make it stick'.
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